1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a time recorder to punch in and out for managing employees or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, as a time recorder operating to punch in and out for managing employees or the like dedicated time cards have been used, based on a pay period such as a monthly, weekly, or biweekly period matched to the company's employment regulations and procedures. Printing has been done on one time card per pay period. The printing system is described in further detail by taking a time card for a monthly pay period as an example. Fifteen print lines are formed on the front side and 16 print lines on the rear side. In total, 31 print lines are formed. Daily clock in/out times are printed such that one line is assigned to one day. Where there are no ins/outs on a holiday or vacation, the blank columns are left.
Therefore, where an employee repeats in and out his office several times during a period from the beginning of the work to the end of the work, one proposed time recorder of related art as described in Reference 1 (JP-A-2002-118102) modifies the status of printing easily and prints daily clock in/out times. Another proposed time recorder of related art as described in Reference 2 (JP-A-2002-342801) recalculates the sum of actual working hours and timees the modified actual working hours. This recorder also erases the actual working hours so far.
However, in the method of printing clock in/out times in one day on one line as in Reference 1, because of a limitation on the printable width of each time card, the number of clock ins/outs printable on one line is limited to 2 to 6 at most. Furthermore, where the actual working hours between clock ins and clock outs are totalized again and printed as in Reference 2, the number of clock ins/outs printable on one line is also limited and so the printing is not easy to read. Accordingly, in order to increase the number of clock ins/outs that can be printed on one line, it is necessary that the print font size be reduced or the width of the time card itself be increased.
If the print font size is reduced, however, it becomes more difficult to read the printing visually. Also, misreading occurs more frequently. If the width of the time card itself is increased, the size of the time recorder that prints on the time card is increased, thus presenting problems. That is, the manufacturing cost is increased. A broader installation space is also necessary. Furthermore, lines for holidays are left as empty lines in principle, resulting in wastage. Where the starting times of pay periods are different frequently, it is necessary to prepare different time cards for the different cases.